Semen Production in the Quran: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=2|Structure=3|Content=4|Language=2|References=3}}[[File:Hippocrates.jpg|thumb|280px|right|Qur'an 86:7 says that sperm originates from the backbones and the ribs, a theory similar to another erroneous theory proposed by Hippocrates in 5th century BC (1000 years before Islam). Hippocrates taught that semen comes from all the fluid in the body, diffusing from the brain into the spinal marrow, before passing through the kidneys and via the testicles into the penis.<ref>Hippocratic Writings (Penguin Classics, 1983) pp. 317-318</ref>]]Towards the end of the 20th century and into the early 21st century, drawing on the work of a broad and largely Saudi-financed movement to demonstrate the concordance of [[Islam and Science|Islamic scriptures and modern science]], attempts have been made to not only defend the [[Quran|Qur'anic]] idea (found in {{Quran-range|86|6|7}}) of semen production from between the ''sulb'' and the ''tara’ib'', but also to demonstrate it as an instance of divinely inspired scientific foreknowledge, or, as more commonly referred to, a [[Scientific Miracles in the Quran|scientific miracle of the Quran]]. Several specific [[Tafsir|interpretations]] advocating the miracle have been proposed, critiqued, and withdrawn - none, however, have been welcomed by the professional scientific or historian community.<ref>Sam Shamoun has, for example, considered some of these ideas in the articles found [http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Science/semenproduction.htm here] and [http://www.answeringislam.info/Shamoun/wonders.htm here].</ref>

Many Islamic translations opt to translate the word ''sulb'' in {{Quran|86|7}} as 'loins', evoking the euphemistic sense of the word 'loins' which alludes to the reproductive organs of a male. It is important to note that this sense of the word 'loins' is secondary to its primary sense, which refers to the lumber portion of the back (hence the word ''sirloin'', which refers to '(a piece of) meat from the back of an animal near the tail or from the top part of the back legs').<ref>[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/loin "Loin", Cambridge Dictionary]</ref> Both sense of the word are accounted for in the Oxford English Dictionary.{{Quote|"Loin", Oxford English Dictionary|Loin, n.<br>1. a. In the living body. Chiefly pl. The part or parts of a human being or quadruped, situated on both sides of the vertebral column, between the false ribs and the hip-bone.<br>2. Chiefly Biblical and poet. This part of the body, regarded: a. as the part of the body that should be covered with clothing and about which the clothes are bound; so, to gird (up) the loins (lit. and fig.), to prepare for strenuous exertion.}}The Lane's Lexicon of Classical Arabic definition for ''sulb'' includes the following:{{Quote|[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000436.pdf صلب Lane's Lexicon]|and any portion of the back containing vertebrae: (S, MSB, TA:) [and particularly '''the lumbar portion; the loins''':] and the back [absolutely]}}Lane also quotes an Arab saying that features ''sulb'', translating and explaining it as follows (''sperma'' is a Late Latin word meaning seed, or semen):{{Quote|[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000436.pdf صلب Lane's Lexicon]|''These are the sons of their loins:'' Because the sperma of the man is held to proceed from the sulb of the man}}

===Supporting evidence in other verses and hadith===

Independent corroboration that ''sulb'' in the Qur'an refers to the back or backbone is found in another verse on the same subject using a different word for back. Verse 7:172 says that the offspring of the children of Adam are from their backs (loins). Instead of ''sulb'', the word here is ''thahr'', which means the back<ref>thahr - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume5/00000212.pdf Lane's Lexicon Book I page 197]</ref>, as is clearly the case in other verses such as {{Quran|6|31}}.{{Quote|{{Quran|7|172}}|When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants...}}Arabic: مِنۢ بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ

Transliteration: min banee adama min thuhoorihim thurriyyatahum

Literal: from the children of Adam, from their backs their offspring

One other verse in the Qur'an uses the word ''sulb''. In this case there is no mention of ''tara'ib''. It is an example of the simple Arabic phrase mentioned in Lane's Lexicon (see above), based on the belief that the seed of men proceed from their backs.{{Quote|{{Quran|4|23}}|Forbidden unto you are your mothers, and your daughters, and your sisters [...] and the wives of your sons who (spring) from your own loins}}And slightly more explicitly, a hadith in [[Sahih Bukhari]] (also in {{Muslim|39|6733}}) uses ''sulb'' to say that the source of Adam's future progeny was in his back before they were even conceived.{{Quote|{{Bukhari|8|76|562}}|The Prophet (pbuh) said, "Allah will say to the person who will have the minimum punishment in the Fire on the Day of Resurrection, 'If you had things equal to whatever is on the earth, would you ransom yourself (from the punishment) with it?' He will reply, Yes. Allah will say, 'I asked you a much easier thing than this while you were in the backbone of Adam, that is, not to worship others besides Me, but you refused and insisted to worship others besides Me."'}}

===Apologetic Claims===

The most prominent apologetic explanations are as follows:

#Drs. Maurice Bucaille and A.K. Giraud: Sulb and tara’ib refer to the sexual areas of the man and woman.

#Ahmed A. Abd-Allah: Accepts and extends Bucaille’s assumption, and claims that all the acknowledged translations and tafsirs are in error, as ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' does not refer to a man’s backbone and ribs, but to the man’s “hardening” (i.e. penis) and a woman’s erogenous zones (not including the vagina).

 

#Dr. Zakir Naik: ''Sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refers to the backbone and ribs of both sexes, however the verses refer only to the gonads in the embryonic stage, and not to adults in the act of sexual reproduction.

 

#Dr. Jamal Badawi: The verses refer not to semen production but to the blood of the aorta as the ‘gushing fluid poured forth’.

 

#Tafsir Ibn Kathir: ''Sulb'' refers to the man’s backbone, and ''tara’ib'' refers to the woman’s chest.

 

##Tafsir al-Jalalayn - issuing from between the loins, of the man, and the breast-bones, of the woman.

 

##Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs- (That issued from between the loins) of a man (and ribs) the ribs of a woman.

 

#Muhammad Asad: ''Sulb'' refers to the man’s loins and ''tara’ib'' refers to the woman’s pelvic arch.

 

#Moiz Amjad makes three claims; a) ''Sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' refers to the blood supply of the testes emanating from between the man’s back and ribs, b) The embryonic gonads originate in the area as per Dr Zakir Naik, and c) The ''sulb'' and ''tara’ib'' region is a euphemism for the male sexual organ.

 

#Yusuf Ali: Backbone is a symbol of man's strength. Man's seed is a metaphor which flows between the backbone and the ribs.